Peattie's
nature writings are distinguished by a poetic and philosophical cast of mind and are scientifically scrupulous. His best known works are the two books (out of a planned trilogy) on North American trees,
A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America (1950) and
A Natural History of Western Trees (1953), with woodcut illustrations by
Paul Landacre. Peattie also produced children's and
travel books, altogether totaling almost forty volumes. He also published the classic, botanical treatment on the
Flora of the Indiana Dunes (1930). An example of Peattie's anti-Black racism is the following, from
An Almanac for Moderns: "Every species of ant has its racial characteristics. This one seems to me to be the negro of ants, and not alone from the circumstance that he is all black, but because he is the commonest victim of slavery, and seems especially susceptible to a submissive estate. He is easily impressed by the superior organization or the menacing tactics of his raiders and drivers, and, as I know him, he is relatively lazy or at least disorganized, random, feckless and witless when free in the bush, while for his masters he will work faithfully." Peattie's belief in the inferiority of people of African descent seems to be specific to them, and does not seem to have extended to other non-white people, nor implied a broader support of eugenics. According to Peattie's grandson, David Peattie, "In the period following the bombing of Pearl Harbor... [Donald Culross Peattie] spoke out eloquently against the internment of Japanese Americans, and wrote letters to the editor in their defense". That was after he witnessed a Japanese gardener, who had been hired by the owner of a house he was renting in California, interned in the camps. Thus, Peattie's belief in the inferiority of people of African descent seems to be specific to them, and does not seem to have extended to other non-white people, nor implied a broader support of eugenics. His comments on the taxonomist Carl Linnaeus, suggest that Peattie was not classist. In discussing, in 1936, how Linnaeus grew up in a small, provincial town far from the scientific capitals of Europe, Peattie said: "To the astonishment of all the wise men, he (Linnaeus) was not a product of Wittenberg, or the parks of Versailles or even of English country life, that nurse of so much delicate feeling for natural beauty. But genius so seldom grows where the highly born and the members of the eugenical societies tell us to expect it!" (This is a slap against the
American Eugenics Society, a national group formed in 1921, which was prominent in the 1930s, promoting "racial betterment." During that time, the group consisted of "mostly prominent and wealthy members who more often than not were non-scientists.") ==Books==